tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8282587.post111556636550443862..comments2024-03-19T01:48:39.709+00:00Comments on Power and Control: Smoke Cigarettes - Live LongerM. Simonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09508934110558197375noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8282587.post-1115685616813452712005-05-10T00:40:00.000+00:002005-05-10T00:40:00.000+00:00jj,You are quite right about the correlation of ci...jj,<BR/><BR/>You are quite right about the correlation of cigarette smoking with cancer. It also has some effect on those with heart problems.<BR/><BR/>However we do know that stress relief helps people live longer. Depression shortens peoples lives.<BR/><BR/>So it may be that the anti-depressant effects of cigarettes more than compensates for the increased mortality from other causes.<BR/><BR/>BTW did you look at the source articles which go into more detail about the statistics and how they were derrived?<BR/><BR/>Correlation is not causation. So you may be correct about self selection bias. However, the Electrical Engineer who looked at the anti-smoking statistics says that the anti folks cooked the books.M. Simonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09508934110558197375noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8282587.post-1115600534169340272005-05-09T01:02:00.000+00:002005-05-09T01:02:00.000+00:00P.S. I'm always a little leary of counter-intuiti...P.S. I'm always a little leary of counter-intuitive articles published in April.jj mollohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15011855944240477996noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8282587.post-1115598980213897132005-05-09T00:36:00.000+00:002005-05-09T00:36:00.000+00:00I don't know. The doctors aren't wrong about this...I don't know. The doctors aren't wrong about this, and there've been a lot of studies for specific diseases. Nevertheless, if you look at average life span, maybe the numbers could be reversed for one simple reason. People who are not well to begin with will not take up smoking. Only healthy people can afford such a habit. If you were to do a paired study, where people matched for initial health were randomly assigned to smoke or not smoke, I'm sure you would identify a problem with smoking pretty quickly. Since such a study would be unethical, we can never know with certainty the effect of smoking.<BR/><BR/>This certainly doesn't mean that I don't agree with your basic idea that prohibition is a bad thing and people deserve the freedom to pick their own poison.jj mollohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15011855944240477996noreply@blogger.com